Can we blame people for how they are raised? While
reading The Sport of Kings, I kept
asking myself this question. I think that characters such as John Henry, Henry
and Henrietta can be seen as evil or cruel. Towards the beginning, we see Henry
begin to develop “evil” qualities. When Henry tells his father about Filip,
Maryleen says “You are evil” to Henry. Before this, I almost thought that Henry
would be able to “run away from his father”. As Henry gets older, it
becomes clear that the way he is raised
will impact his entire life. Even his mother believes that Henry is changing. “There
was a change in her son, she eyed him now with the wariness of a doe that
senses a hunter is afoot. He didn’t lean into her on the pew anymore, didn’t
doze like a child against her shoulder; he no longer smiled.” Lavinia sees that
the evil in John Henry may be spreading to Henry. This is when Morgan begins to
establish that anyone in the Forge line is doomed to inherit the evils of their
family. This is where my question is presented. The evil, the hate, the racism
that the Forges possess is innate due to how they were raised. I had a really
difficult time truly hating any of the characters. I think it is impossible to overcome
evil if it is all that you have ever known. But is it our human duty to try and
overcome it? I think Morgan wants us to ask ourselves these questions to
explore the depths of human nature. John Henry tells Henry: “I’m going to tell
you what my father told me: throughout the history of this country, we have
saved an inferior people from themselves, and now that they’ve won everything
they clamored for, they can’t manage their own freedoms.” This quote
exemplifies how both John Henry and Henry were taught by their fathers. How can
we blame a young child for what they are born into? I think that towards the
end, both Henry and Henrietta try to change their natures. It is infinitely more
impressive to be born into evil and try to overcome it rather than being born
into “good”. I think before we make judgements about the characters, we have to
use empathy and put ourselves in their positions. I am not justifying their
evil, but that is what Morgan wants us to feel. We are supposed to question how
our upbringings affect our human nature.
While I don’t think that we can blame people for the ways in which they are raised, after all as children we are not given much of a choice in the matter, I do think we have the responsibility and duty to decide how we will let it impact us as we grow into more self-sufficient beings and active members of society. This is the stance that Roger, Ginnie’s husband, also takes in the novel, stating that “when you grow up, you have to take responsibility for your adult mind” when Ginnie argues that “you can’t help the way you were raised” (407). In other words, you cannot fall back on the way you were raised as an excuse to justify your every opinion, unforgiveable action, and lack of original thought. As a member of society, it should be your responsibility to learn from others in society, not just the teachings of your parents or your teachers, and to consider all types of perspectives when developing your own. It is not enough to simply take the deeply ingrained beliefs of your parents and navigate life through a similar lens; this challenges no one and changes nothing but secures you as a mere product of your parents before you and their parents before them and your children after you and so on until someone takes up a new truth and diverges from the perspective of the legacy preceding them. To accept what you are taught growing up as the one and only truth does not fulfill what it means to be your own being and to inhabit your own mind. This is something that Henrietta touches upon in one of her thoughts in her journal, expressing how she felt defined exclusively by her father, as if she were the result of her father’s ideas alone. However, she soon realizes that “no one can invent a human wholesale…Being is too great for a single mind, because it did not emerge from a single mind. Mind itself is an epiphenomenon of changing nature and the contingencies of history” (403-404). In expressing such thoughts, I think Henrietta is showing that we, as beings that are defined by our minds (318), do not belong to one mere traditional lineage of thought, that we are not the creation of one mind, nor the result of one childhood. Rather, it is our duty, and even within out nature to seek out and become the result of multiple minds that are influenced and swayed by changes in history, society, etc.
ReplyDeleteIn connecting Henry’s upbringing with the way Henrietta was raised, it is easy to see that parents definitely shape their children. From the very day we are born, parents play a large role in making us who we are. Therefore, when Henry grows up knowing nothing but his father’s evil and cruelty, it is hard for him to be anything else. In the same way, Henrietta has never really been “loved,” so she has no good model for what love truly is. Henry’s mistreatment of Henrietta is most likely what led her to become so promiscuous with men. Furthermore, just as it was hard for Henry to be anything other than a reflection of his own father’s evil, cruelty and racism, it is also difficult for Henrietta to root her identity in anything other than her father’s ideas and lessons. But, just as Ginnie Miller’s husband Roger tells Henry, there still comes a point in life when you need to take control of yourself and be responsible for your actions (407). Taking accountability of your adult mind and deciding for yourself how you will let your upbringing impact your life is a true mark of maturity – something both Henry and Henrietta lack at the moment. So I do agree that, as human beings, it is our duty to shape our worldview based not just on one mind or one childhood, but based on the interplay of various ideas, differing perspectives, and multiple minds.
ReplyDeleteThroughout the novel, Morgan emphasizes a person’s inability to escape their family’s influence. Most clearly, she does this through the Forge family and Allmon. Morgan crafts the Forges to be a long line of men who could not get away from the influence of their fathers, because “a father was born for himself, and his son was himself in perpetuity” (312). Allmon, on the other hand, has a similar experience through vastly different intricacies. Due to a cycle of poverty, Allmon is unable to escape his roots, which consist of a struggling single mother and a community which experiences high rates of incarceration (a statistic to which Allmon eventually contributes). Additionally, Allmon exhibits a connection to his father’s ill behaviors by leaving behind his pregnant lover, to which she responds by calling him “‘a goddamn fucking stereotype’” (373).
ReplyDeleteSpanning the entire plot of the book, however, is yet another manner in which Morgan highlights the concept of being connected to one’s family. Without their knowledge, all of the main characters in the book are connected through ancestors. Morgan’s decision to craft the plot this way brings further attention to the idea of being powerless to the influence of family, an idea that is continuously present throughout the novel. This additional layer of familial dependence serves to further articulate the point of being unable to escape from the fate crafted by one’s family in a nuanced manner, which is brought upon by the unawareness of the characters.
For me, I didn’t really view their actions and beliefs as evil but more as that each generation had passed down ideologies that were not good for them or for the people around them. John Henry teaches a lot to Henry, and Henry teaches many things to Henrietta. John Henry teaches Henry that obedience and respecting his father is a must. He tells Henry to stop daydreaming and to think about “the order established by minds greater than your own” (22). This shows that John Henry wants Henry to be like all the other Forges, who obey orders, not do anything different than previous generations, and live their lives not wanting more than what they already have. Henry does continue to have some similar ideologies as his father, but he changes some, such as how he wants Henrietta to grow up. However, similar to all Forges before him, he doesn’t treat his wife well, just like how his father didn’t treat his mother well. This is why both Judith and Henry’s mother find love elsewhere instead of their own husbands. That’s why Judith asks Henrietta is she is happy because clearly Judith isn’t with how Henry was raised to be a husband, as Henry learned from seeing his father, and his father probably learned from previous generations. All of the Forge’s teachings over generations wasn’t evil per say, but the ideologies were not good ones to be passed down.
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